"Set your mind on things above, and keep it set!" -Colossians 3:2
How do we delineate the "things above" from the "things below"?
I once thought "things below" were sins. The ten commandments were my checklist and any behavior that did not comply was a "thing below."
Now I think of a "thing below" as anything - any thought, word, action, habit, possession, or person - that I am choosing over God or that is creating a wedge between me and God.
Right now, I am sinful. There are thoughts that I routinely choose over God. My foster daughter will never call me mom. My foster daughter honors her biological parents, while I'm left with eye rolls and door slams. My foster daughter never says thank you.
Satan works in my head and it manifests in the material world. Thus, I am challenged to reject or realign my own expectations... for reciprocaton, validation, and glorification.
Dear Lord,
Absolve me of expectations. Help me to take people as they are - making no judgments, placing no blame; and to find peace in the situation exactly as it is and exactly as it isn't. Help me to not associate a person's worth with their ability to meet my expectations. Take me to a mature level of love, a godly unconditional love. Saturate my heart with mature faith and mature endurance -- trusting your plan, not imposing my own. Keep my heart set on YOUR desires and hold my focus there, even as earthly temptations aim to distract. Amen.
